Thriving together creates groundbreaking new data center to share key education demographics with leaders, community

A key Phoenix educational initiative has created a tool to make it easier than ever to find critical data about education in the community.

Thriving Together Data Center. Courtesy thrivingtogetheraz.org

Thriving Together, which is anchored by Valley of the Sun United Way, is an initiative designed to better prepare a quarter-million young people who live within the boundaries of the Phoenix Union High School District and the 13 elementary school districts within for success from birth to career.

And one of the key tools the initiative uses is data — which Thriving Together uses to shine a spotlight on practices and trends that drive educational outcomes in the community. Now, it is bringing data to the fingertips of education and community leaders through a new online Data Center.

The Data Center, housed on the Thriving Together web site (www.thrivingtogetheraz.org), provides community members with key metrics along the educational continuum, including third grade reading, eighth grade math, middle to high school transition, high school graduation, post-secondary enrollment, and post-secondary completion.

The information had been scattered in various locations before, but the Thriving Together Data Center brings it together in one place to help educators and community leaders identify trends driving educational outcomes in the community.

“The Data Center is consistent with our goal of bringing together community resources like never before to support improvements in education for our children,” said Brian Spicker, Chief Program Officer for Valley of the Sun United Way. “We are very proud that Thriving Together can serve as a bridge between the public sector, private sector, nonprofit community and educational community by providing resources that are critical to a better path to success for young people in Phoenix.”

“The Data Center provides educators and community members with a tool that increases transparency of educational outcomes, advances the use of data to identify areas with the highest need for improvement, and shines a light on areas where students are excelling,” said Dr. Chad Gestson, Superintendent of the Phoenix Union High School District and Co-Chairman of Thriving Together. “It is a great example of how collaboration and shared information can help us provide a better education for our young people.”

Thriving Together’s milestone metrics presented on the data center are also fully aligned with Expect More Arizona’s Progress Meter, which measures educational outcomes for Arizona students.

The new Data Center is part of a brand-new web presence for Thriving Together that includes data on milestones and associated metrics along the birth-to-career continuum.

“We are pleased to be able to provide these kind of tools to members of our community who are committed to creating a brighter future for our young people,” Spicker said. “Thriving Together is a fairly new initiative, but we are pleased with the impact it is having in improving educational outcomes in our community.”

Thriving Together brings together resources from throughout the community to help students improve educational results as they reach key benchmarks in their development, placing and keeping them on a path to success. The initiative includes public elementary and high schools within the area of the Phoenix Union High School District.

Other significant efforts by Thriving Together have included convening the superintendents of the school districts in the Thriving Together boundaries to work together in ways not seen before, as well as programs that have increased college enrollment rates and improved access to student resources.